Drivers/firmware affect performance?

[quisp65]

I would frequently check the router charts when trying to determine a router to get. Some of the specs I would look at would be... "max connections", "wan to lan throughput", and "total simultaneous." But doesn't driver/firmware greatly affect these specs?

I eventually settled on a Asus RT-AC68P despite it doing worse on some of the specs compared to other similar routers. I rationalized that after driver/firmware gets improved that it's 1 Ghz chip would probably perform just as good as the Netgear 7000 with the 1 Ghz chip.

Should SNB update the tests as time & firmware changes?... or would that be too much work.... or is my belief BS?

 

[L&LD]

I believe it makes no sense to keep these charts updated. Things change too fast for that to become a reality for Tim.

Your rationalization may prove to be true or not. But mostly not. It isn't just the hardware that dictates the performance possible (look at the RT-AC87U as an example). It is the drivers and the firmware optimizations too that influence the overall performance of any product sporting a cpu today.

In your shoes, I would have probably chosen the same model if it was available here. But for different reasons.

Asus' commitment to keep even their older products updated (security holes patched first, and new features, second) and of course, RMerlin's dedication to even further improving Asus' good work.

This doesn't mean that the performance will match other vendors hardware (though it might and may even exceed it, eventually), but it does mean that my initial investment will remain as secure and as current as possible for far longer than the too early abandoned models that Netgear offers.